Seven of Everything

Back in August I revisited The Seven Criteria of a Successful Goal using a pseudo-acronym PLOTTED. I decided to publish this pattern for success in my local school newspaper and, while I was having it reviewed by a professor, found out that he liked the pattern but not the pseudo-acronym. So I went in search for an acronym that was better than SMART and was not a pseudo-acronym. This is what I came up with and the article that I submitted: Success in Life Have you ever felt overwhelmed or bored with the things that you are doing? How about the times when you remember all the things that you should be doing that you can't seem to fit into your day? Perhaps there are times when you wish you had done certain things, but they remain as unfinished regrets? There is a way out of this vicious cycle. You're probably asking 'How do I do this?' Most people in this situation find that they lack focus. Setting goals can help provide that focus. Here is a pattern to follo...

Back in July I wrote a post about the three fold mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as I see it. I have changed some of my views a little. This will make little to no sense if you haven't read that post first so here is the link: The Balance of the Church Mission . Here are the changes: I see the mission of perfecting the saints as covenant keeping which includes a focus on Christ’s mission for the saints which, put simply, is to bring about our immortality and eternal life. The focus of a committee for preaching the gospel would also include a focus of preparing teachers to teach well, preparing people to speak well in public, to read the audience and to teach at the level that the audience is prepared to receive. Most importantly, to teach by the spirit and learn skills that keep out things that distract from feeling the spirit. A focus on rescuing people who have broken covenants and commitments would also be included (not attending church, etc.) bec...

I have compiled every scripture that I could find in the Book of Mormon that testifies of the resurrection of Christ directly. There are 25 verses which I summarized into one paragraph. I will list all of the verses after the summary: Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Only Begotten of the Father, the Holy Messiah, the Son of Righteousness. Jesus Christ laid down His life according to the flesh; His own people, the Jews, slayed Him through crucifixion. After he was laid in a sepulcher for the space of three days, he rose again from the dead, taking His life again by the power of the Spirit, which is by the power of the Father. Thus breaking the bands of death, having gained the victory over death, being the first that should rise from the dead, which rising is called the resurrection of Christ from the dead. He then manifested himself unto His people by faith; including showing himself unto the Nephites and Lamanites after His ascension into heaven, they having been given signs of ...

"And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made . " "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy . " The seventh core element of health is rest. Sleep is what most people think of in relation to this term, however, there are many forms of rest including sleep. Wholesome recreation is a very good way to rest from our labors. Fasting is a healthy way to rest our digestive system. Sleep is a great way to rejuvenate our bodies. Having a day of rest to focus on spiritual things and worshiping God is one of the best, most effective forms of rest. And as we are all mortal, one day all of our spirits will have a time of rest from our physical bodies. Rest does not mean doing nothing or wasting our time. When we are fasting or sleeping our bodies are using energy to improve the body. We need to be careful not to waste our time in the name of rest and relaxation, wasting time is not healthy. ...

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth . " "Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work . " The sixth element of health is labor. Replenishing and subduing the earth, as well as having dominion over every moving, living thing requires physical labor. Some would use the words exercise or work as the title for this element, but exercise can be selfish, not fitting to follow love, and work, as a term used today...

"And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth . " In the account of the creation of the earth the animals were brought forth and commanded to be fruitful and multiply. Man was likewise commanded to do the same. The fundamental organization in which this is to occur is in the family. And the most fundamental cause which brings this about is love. The fifth core element of health is love with the central focus around love in the family. All forms of love are encompassed by this element of health. There are different ways to express love, differen...

"And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth . " The fourth core element of health is light. Light is a very broad topic, it includes the full electromagnetic spectrum of light: Radio waves, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, X-rays and gamma rays. Light is affected by gravity. Our bodies communicate through light. As electrons move they emit light with its magnetic field. We are affected by how much light we receive, what forms of light, the balance of the spectrum on our bodies and the large bodies in space with their gravitational affects. Our bodies also have a low energy effect on other people and objects. This goes both ways. We are electrical beings. The communication between our brain and the rest of our body is largely connected to this fact. Where there is ...

"And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth . " "And God said [to man], Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat . " "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them ... Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat . " Food is the third Element of our health. There is more research with regard to food and diet and their effect on health and healing than many people give credit. Studies show that food has a large effect on sickness and on healing. The process of digestion through the gastrointestinal track, as well as the contents involved is included in...

"And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters . " This firmament and these waters are the atmosphere. The atmosphere, in balance with the earth's minerals, is the second element of our health. There are two main components with the atmosphere - air and water. The effect of air on our health includes what we breathe and how we breathe. The effect of water on our health includes the quality of water we drink, the amount that we drink, and the proper water-electrolyte balance in our bodies, as well as, our hygiene, including the quality of water we bathe or shower in and the temperature of that water. We all know about air pollution. We know many things that should not be in the air that we breathe including smoke, from cigarettes and drugs, exhaust, from factories and cars, as well as, airborne pathogens, like bacteria and viruses. In fact, indoor air pollution, like chemicals and mold tend to be more h...

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness . In the beginning intelligence was without form and void. And God organized some of the intelligence into spirits. These spirits are His children. And God separated His children who sought after light from those who sought after darkness. His children who sought after light were sent to earth to be clothed with a physical body. And the light and knowledge had by the spirit was separated from the darkness and lack of knowledge had by the body. Our spirit in connection with our body is the first element of our health. There is little known about the characteristics of our spirits. One reason for that is that the physical body is not fully in tu...

In the next blog posts I will present a health model which is superior to all other health models. This model I call the seven core elements of health . It is patterned after the Biblical account of the creation of the world because that was given to us as a pattern for many, if not all other aspects of our life. Following that pattern it becomes the creation of our health. Other health models have many, and occasionally all, of the principles represented here but these seven elements are overarching principles and all other aspects of health, in this model, are under them because these are fundamental to all other principles. The intent of these next posts is to teach about health. As you can tell I will not hesitate to include religious principles in relation to health. My intent is not to teach religion but there is plenty of evidence that there is a link between the belief and practice of a religion and its effects on health. These eight posts are my first draft of my inten...

This post was spawned from the following question: If Eternal Life is the greatest of God's gifts (as D&C 14:7 says), what does that make Exaltation? My first thoughts about this question cause me to think: If it is the greatest gift then it is would seem to me to be the top glory of the Celestial Kingdom because how can you get better than that. If it is living in God the Father's presence then it is the same as living in the Celestial kingdom. If it is simply living in God's presence then it is synonymous with salvation or(aka) any of the kingdoms in the kingdom of God. Exaltation was not clearly defined in my mind either. I've heard that the endowment and sealing ordinances are exalting ordinances whereas baptism is a saving ordinance, well, the only saving ordinance. But given Elder Nelson's definition from April 2008 , the sealing ordinance is the only exalting ordinance (my interpretation of his definition). Although, we can't receive it witho...

This is from a portion of my talk that I did not have time to give back in June: "And blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth . " My purpose today is to inspire you to keep your covenants more fully. And to take action in so doing. There are several, varying definitions of meek. When it is so hard to find a consistent or meaningful definition, I find it helpful and more reliable to look at the etymology of a word – the study of the true sense – which tells its origin language and meanings. For meek a few of the original meanings are "gentle, courteous, kind," (from around 1200AD) "soft, pliant, gentle," (from Old Norse mjukr) which lead to the sense of "submissive" (from mid-14c) . If the term submissive is used then the scripture that comes to mind for me is Mosiah 3:19 “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy ...

This is from a talk I gave at the beginning of June: "​And blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost . " ​We need to hunger and thirst after righteousness in order to be filled with the Holy Ghost. This could also be reworded to say that we need to hunger and thirst after righteous works or even after the Righteous One which is Christ. He has provided a way for us to hunger and thirst after Him and it is through covenant making and covenant keeping. There are three covenants that we make through the saving and exalting ordinances. These are made through baptism, the temple endowment and the temple sealing. For men, there is also receiving the Melchizedek priesthood. We see one very direct link between an ordinance and this beatitude when Christ expounded the sacrament to the Nephites. "And he said unto them: He that eateth this bread eateth of my body to his soul; and he that drinketh of this wi...

I have pondered over this concept for some time since my last post The Seven Criteria of a Successful Goal and have modified it in some degree to include a pseudo-acronym: Plotted Success:     ​ ​      ​ ​​ ​ ​ ​ ​​P urpose    ​ ​  ​ ​​ ​ ​Va L ue  ​   ​ ​   ​ ​ ​ ​ ​C O mmitment Suppor T  ​ ​ ​    ​     ​​ ​ ​ ​ T ime  ​ ​      ​​  ​ ​St E ps   ​Rewar D The only differences are the first and sixth elements which I changed to 'purpose' and 'steps', respectively. The purpose is the simple stated and written goal but it needs to answer the question 'why?' and differs from what value it has. Steps need ...

I am a categorizer. I love to see the order of things. As such, I hate the word ‘miscellaneous.’ To me if it is truly miscellaneous then it doesn't belong and should be thrown out. A few years ago in a singles ward I served as the membership clerk. Among my duties, I was in charge of recording and keeping track of member’s callings. It was very hard for me at that time to see the order to many of the callings and where they fit into the mission of the church. As I was writing my blog Sets of Three I was reminded about what I came up with regarding the order of callings and mission of the church and what I have pondered about it since. Here are some patterns that I found in talks and manuals of the church: Proclaim Redeem Perfect Preaching Ordinances Government Instruct Serve Unify Nurturing Responsibility Friend If you are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I want you to see if you know where all four of these sets come from. Also, I want yo...

A few years ago I had a discussion with an evangelical minister who did not believe that the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon was the primary distinguishing factor between evangelicals and Saints. Although I do not agree with this, he did state that our definitions of grace differed. I did agree with that, but at the time I could not pinpoint a definition for grace. Since then I have done a lot of research and now feel that I understand grace much better and can define it much more clearly from a Saint's perspective. The two best discourses I have ever heard or read on grace is in the book Believing Christ by Stephen Edward Robinson (in the chapters Saved by Grace and Misunderstanding Grace) and a general conference talk by the Apostle, Elder David A Bednar titled In the Strength of the Lord . Here is how I would simply define grace - a gift of God's enabling power . There is a question of whether this is deserved or undeserved - it can be both. In a previous post I dis...

It is necessary for a man first, to be born. And having come into being, to increase. And having increased, to be strengthened. And having been strengthened, to multiply. And having multiplied, to become great. And having become mighty, to receive glory. And having received glory, to behold his Lord; for God is He who is to be seen. The sight of God is perfect immortality and immortality makes one to be very much like God." Irenaeus ~175 AD 1 Be born 2 To increase 3 Be strengthened 4 To multiply 5 Become great/mighty 6 Receive glory 7 Behold God (immortality)

I know that this is a blog about sets of seven but I have found several sets of three over the years and I want to share them. First I will make a list then explain some of them. The order matters on each of these. If I reordered them it would not have the same effect or power. Meaning what is first must be first. What is second must be second and is central to the set. And what is third must be third. Think → Do → Become Know → Commit → Behave Autonomy → Mastery → Purpose Preaching → Ordinances → Government Instruct → Serve → Unify Believeth → Baptized → Saved Repent → Baptized → Become Nurturing → Responsibility → Friend Proclaim → Redeem → Perfect Believe → Obey → Endure Marketing → Sales → Research and Development Rules → Transactions → Plans Prepared → Chosen → Inspired Philosophy → Art → Science Learn → Apply → Understand Faith → Repentance → Baptism Faith → Hope → Charity Learn → Live → Share Think, Do and Become. I don't remember where I got this. ...

This is from a talk I gave in May of 2010 which started with my post from September 2009 Why Do We Need a Body? I then linked that with the General Conference talk Generations Linked in Love by Elder Russel M Nelson an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. God, the Creator of all things, was so brilliant in the creation that we can look at anything that He created and be taught of Him what we must do. We are created in His image so I like to look to the body as one of the most magnificent teachers. I would say that our body has three purposes: One is to digest food, another is to unify the spirit with the body and the last is to improve its function or skill. In other words our body has a three-fold mission. To integrate a lower form of life into the greater form of the body. To do for the spirit what it could not do for itself, to be unified with the spirit in preparation for the day of its redemption by Jesus Christ. And to perfect the body in function, structure and ability. I...

This is a continuation of the blog post  Why Do We Need Body?  from September 2009. Most of this is quoting from the fireside talk by Things as They Really Are Elder Bednar and apostle of Jesus Christ given in May 2009. I removed the personal stories. "[Satan's] attempts to influence us both to misuse our physical bodies and to minimize the importance of our bodies." “Wherefore, I give unto them a commandment … : Thou shalt not idle away thy time, neither shalt thou bury thy talent that it may not be known” (D&C 60:13). I strongly believe that ... moments of regret and realization will come to each of us for our idle time and buried talents. We will not receive new talents and loose the ones that we have if we do not come back to reality. Nephi and Alma commanded their people to be industrious and produce much fruit just like our modern prophets and apostles. "If [satan] cannot entice us to misuse our physical bodies, then one of his most potent tactics...

I decided to search the scriptures for every instance of the terms redeemed and redemption as well as saved and salvation. According to the scriptures, redemption brings about both resurrection and salvation. Resurrection is the redemption from the fall. It is never said that we are saved from the fall - this is not the case. We are redeemed from the fall which brings all men back into the presence of God. Redemption from the fall is not complete until we, all of God's children who come to earth, are standing in the presence of God. However, redemption and salvation are essentially the same thing when it comes to personal sins. The redemption brings about salvation of those who believe and are baptized. Those who go the the Telestial kingdom are saved. Those who go to outer darkness are the only ones that are not saved from the second death, they are damned. They are redeemed from "the fall" but not from their fall. It is not possible to say redeemed from the second...

This months set of seven comes from Elder Richard G Scott's April 2012 General Conference talk titled How to Obtain Revelation and Inspiration for your Personal Life : "When I am faced with a very difficult matter, this is how I try to understand what to do. 1) I fast. 2) I pray to find and understand scriptures that will be helpful. (That process is cyclical.) 3) I start reading a passage of scripture; 4) I ponder what the verse means and 5) pray for inspiration. 6) I then ponder and pray to know if I have captured all the Lord wants me to do. 7) Often more impressions come with increased understanding of doctrine. I have found that pattern to be a good way to learn from the scriptures." [Numbering and parenthesis added]

The answer to this question must be answered by each individual separately. Many people would say that the answer to this question is 'no'. I will present here how those people are correct and how they may be incorrect. Let me start with some of my research of the sacrament prayers. In the prayer on the bread it states that we witness that we are "willing" to do three things. Those three things are the same or very similar to the things that we commit to at baptism. The point is that it states that we are willing to do those three things. We are not witnessing that we "do" those things. However, in the prayer on the water it states that we witness that we "do" one thing, namely, always remember Christ. There is a big difference between being willing to do something and actually doing it. In the church it is taught that "one of the covenants we make with the Lord when we receive our temple endowments is to live the law of consecration . ...